Foam hopper – Chatto original

 

If you fish fast water and need a very buoyant hopper or a buoyant fly to support a nymph try this one.

Materials

Hook Thread Tail & over-body Wing Legs
4 to 10 2X long shank or bass stinger 3/0 thread for trout flies Wapsie 210 Denier thread for bass flies for bass flies Closed cell foam Deer hair or crystal flash Rubber or silicon legs

Process

A
  1. Cut a length of closed cell foam which is as wide as the gape of the hook with a sharp V at one end. For this #10 hook trout fly I have used 1 mm closed cell foam. For a size 1 or 2 bass fly I would use 2 mm closed cell foam.

B
  1. Wind the thread from the 95% position to the bend of the hook and back to the 2/3 position. The colour thread you use can be the same as the body material, contrasting or can be a trigger colour associated with hoppers in your fishery. I have used yellow thread here because the dominant hopper in my fishery is a yellow winged hopper.
  2. Tie the foam in tightly at the two thirds position and bind it all the way to the eye of the hook. The tail of the foam should be around 1/2 the length of the hook.

C
  1. Tie a bunch of deer hair in at the thorax are so as to represent a wing on the hopper. The deer hair can be natural or a colour that will trigger a response.

D
  1. Dub on a thorax of seals fur dubbing.
  2. Finish the thorax with your thread at the 2/3 position.

E
  1. Pull the foam over the front forming a bulbous head and tie it off at the 2/3 position.
  2. Make a couple of multi hitches by hand at the 2/3 position so as to tie the thread off and trim the excess thread.

F
  1. Using a darning needle thread rubber legs or silicon legs on the two opposite horizontals making sure that  the needle and the legs when they are pulled through penetrate through the closed cell foam that was bound down in step 'B'.
  2. Trim the excess foam away so that the back of the wing casing finished in a V that  overlaps about half of the deer hair wing.

G
  1. A drop of head cement on the thread that tied the wing casing in will ensure that the thread does not come undone.



Last Updated: May 8, 2011
Author:
Categories: Bass, EP's, perch and saratoga flies, Dry flies, Flies, Foam and poly flies, Hoppers, locust & crickets
Tags: , , , ,